LegalAware
LegalAware.ai
EMPOWERING LEGAL AWARENESS

Life Insurance Corporation of India vs. Dravya Finance Pvt. Ltd. & Ors.

Civil Appeal · 2023 INSC 815Decided 6 Sept 2023
Civil Appeal No. 4095 of 2012
Abhay S. Oka · Sanjay Karol

Background

Under the Insurance Act, a life insurance policyholder can assign or transfer their policy to another person by giving written notice to the insurer, and the insurer must record the assignment. In 2006, LIC issued a circular imposing a Rs. 250 "registration charge" for processing each such assignment, even though the Act itself only permitted a Re. 1 fee for acknowledging receipt of the assignment notice. Dravya Finance Pvt. Ltd., a finance company frequently dealing in assigned policies, challenged this circular before the Bombay High Court as unconstitutional and beyond LIC's legal authority. The High Court struck down the circular, and LIC appealed to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that when a statute (Section 38 of the Insurance Act) specifically prescribes what fee can be charged for a particular purpose, an insurer cannot charge a different, higher, unauthorized fee for the same or a related purpose through its own circular. LIC had no rule, regulation, or contractual clause authorizing a Rs. 250 registration charge for recording assignments, and the Court noted that later IRDAI regulations from 2015 expressly prohibited charging any fee beyond the acknowledgment fee for recording an assignment. Since a public body cannot levy a charge without legal authority, the Court upheld the High Court's decision and dismissed LIC's appeal.

Lesson Learnt

A government or public-sector body cannot impose fees or charges on citizens through an internal circular unless a law, rule, or regulation specifically authorizes it: "no taxation or fee without authority of law" applies even to routine administrative charges.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

More rulings in Uncategorized (needs manual review)

Uncategorized (needs manual review)Supreme Court of India

Moideenkutty vs. Abraham George

The Supreme Court held that the High Court had placed undue weight on one ambiguous line of cross-examination while ignoring the defendant's own clear admissions: that the contents of the sale agreement (which recorded the property as free of encumbrances) were correct, and that he never used the plaintiff's money to repay the bank loan. The Court also noted that the defendant's later reduction of the sale price by Rs. 35 lakh, after the mortgage issue surfaced, pointed to deceit rather than innocent conduct. It found the plaintiff's explanation for not inspecting the original title deeds (which the defendant said were kept in a bank locker) to be reasonable, especially since the advance paid was only around 10% of the total price. The Supreme Court restored the trial court's decree in the plaintiff's favour and set aside the High Court's judgment.

Decided 15 Dec 2025Read case
Uncategorized (needs manual review)Supreme Court of India

Kolanjiammal (D) Thr LRs vs. The Revenue Divisional Officer Perambalur District and Ors.

The Supreme Court agreed with the High Court that the appellant had failed to use the correct statutory remedy in time, that the 2005 auction (confirmed in 2008) was conducted lawfully, and that the pendency of interim orders in other proceedings did not excuse her from pursuing the specific remedy the Revenue Recovery Act provides. Finding no legal infirmity in the High Court's concurrent findings across the writ appeal and the review application, the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal and upheld the auction sale.

Decided 14 Nov 2025Read case
Uncategorized (needs manual review)Supreme Court of India

U.P. State Road Transport Corporation vs Kashmiri Lal Batra & Ors.

The Supreme Court set aside the High Court's orders and ruled against the private operators, holding that an inter-State agreement between two states is not itself a "law" and cannot override a State's own officially notified transport scheme, which is protected by an overriding provision (Chapter VI) of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988. Tracing a long line of its own precedents, including a Constitution Bench ruling that had settled this exact question, the Court held that private operators cannot ply on a route, or even a shared portion of it, if a State's notified scheme prohibits it, regardless of what a reciprocal inter-state agreement says. The Court also found no clinching evidence that MPSRTC had actually been wound up, only that the process might be underway. However, rather than leaving commuters stranded, the Court directed the transport departments of both states to hold talks within three months to work out a practical, negotiated arrangement for restoring these routes and protecting passengers' interests.

Decided 4 Nov 2025Read case
Uncategorized (needs manual review)Supreme Court of India

Yogesh Madhav Makalwad v. The State of Maharashtra

The Supreme Court held that pre-Independence documents, such as the 1943 school record listing the caste as "Koli Mahadev," carry greater evidentiary weight in caste disputes, and after physically examining the document, found no evidence of tampering. It further held that the "affinity test" (checking whether a person still exhibits a tribe's traditional customs and traits) is not a mandatory or decisive test, since migration and modernisation have naturally eroded such traits over generations, and cannot alone be used to override credible documentary evidence. The Court set aside both the Scrutiny Committee's and High Court's orders, declared the appellant belongs to the Koli Mahadev Tribe, and directed a validity certificate be issued within six weeks.

Decided 12 Aug 2025Read case
Uncategorized (needs manual review)Supreme Court of India

Santhosh Karunakaran v. Ombudsman cum Ethics Officer, Kerala Cricket Association and Another

The Supreme Court found the High Court had taken an unduly harsh view. It noted that the appellant had a plausible case that the Ombudsman's proceedings were non-transparent. He was never given copies of the orders directing impleadment of the District Cricket Associations, and virtual hearings were repeatedly and unjustifiably disrupted. An earlier Ombudsman order had also suggested that impleading the District Associations could cause delay, reasonably leading the appellant to believe it was unnecessary. Since his application only sought uniform bye-laws rather than adversarial relief against the Associations, there was no mandatory requirement to implead them. The Court quashed the Ombudsman's and High Court's orders, struck down the life ban imposed by the KCA, revived the original application, and directed it be decided afresh with a proper hearing within three months.

Decided 29 Jul 2025Read case
Uncategorized (needs manual review)Supreme Court of India

Tamil Nadu Housing Board, Rep. by Its Managing Director and Ors. v. S. Ganesan

The Supreme Court allowed the Board's appeal, holding that the respondent had shown a "lackadaisical" and "chronic defaulter" attitude across decades and could not continue receiving indulgence at the cost of a public authority holding property in trust for the public. It disagreed with the High Court's decision to blame the Board for its earlier calculation error, noting the respondent could not credibly have believed only Rs. 77,000 remained owed on an original Rs. 4.78 lakh bid. The Court closed the respondent's right to make further payment, ordered him to vacate the plot within four months, and permitted the Board to recover the balance dues as arrears of land revenue and to re-auction the property if he failed to comply.

Decided 21 Jul 2025Read case